Announcing Quiet Cove
We are thrilled to announce that the Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) has extended Recherche Bay Reserve to 158 hectares with the addition of an adjoining property known as Quiet Cove. The last remaining private title on the rugged and remote northeast Peninsula of Recherche Bay, Quiet Cove provides important connection to the Southport Conservation Area, allowing animals to move unencumbered across this dramatic landscape.
Quiet Cove is completely forested, predominantly by stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua) forest, and a rainforest species-dominated understorey that extends to the coastline. The critical, intact native vegetation provides a diversity of habitat for fauna species, including masked owls, spotted-tailed quolls and a healthy population of Tasmanian devils.
With nothing sheltering the peninsula from the wild, unbridled moods of the Southern Ocean, Quiet Cove offers a rare glimpse into a landscape unaffected by the modern world.
Cultural Values
Quiet Cove is also steeped in cultural significance, initially for the area’s original Aboriginal custodians, the people of the Lyluquonny palawa Nation, and more recently for European explorers. After being cared for over thousands of years by Aboriginal communities, this unassuming cove hosted a series of early peaceful interactions between the First Nations People and French explorers.
When passing through the area in 1793, crews of the vessels Recherhe and Esperance led by Admiral Bruni d’Entrecasteaux stopped in Recherche Bay and encountered the local population. The two groups cooperated with each other and far from the violence that characterised further colonisation of Tasmania, came together to create a ‘peace-field’ – not a battlefield.
Today, Quiet Cove stands as a testament to possibilities of reconciliation built on understanding – a place built on a recognition of shared humanity.
We would like to extend a sincere thanks to everyone that contributed to our efforts to protect Quiet Cove.
‘The arrival of Europeans in Tasmania had a terrible impact on Aboriginal people. Colonial attempts to exterminate the First Nations of this island in the early 1800s left ‘an indelible stain’ on Australian history, and the consequences continue to resonate today.
GREG LEHMAN PROFESSORIAL FELLOW, INDIGENOUS RESEARCH UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA
Reconciliation and healing can be built on sharing and understanding. Recherche Bay is a place where French navigators and Tasmanian Aboriginal people met – recognising and celebrating their shared humanity. A coming together of the human family after what we now know to have been nearly 100,000 years of separation. The detailed records we have of this meeting in 1793, together with a location that has survived intact since that time, make Quiet Cove one of the most important cultural heritage sites in Australia, if not the world.
The wonderful work done by the Tasmanian Land Conservancy to conserve the Recherche Bay Peninsula has succeeded in protecting most of this immensely important landscape. Quiet Cove is at the epicentre of the cultural significance of this area. It is the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle of protection that is tantalisingly close to completion.’
About Recherche Bay Reserve
Recherche Bay is a site of global, national and historic significance. The campaign to protect it was long fought, generating immense community interest and involvement. It brought the importance of private land conservation to the public’s attention, and shone a light on the role we can all play in protecting Tasmania’s natural and cultural values.
This area was threatened by logging in the early 2000s, which the local community, historians, environmentalists and public figures Bob Brown and philanthropist Dick Smith, resisted with tenacity and gusto.
We’re proud to continue this legacy with the protection of Quiet Cove.
You can read more about Recherche Bay here.